Primary schools in San Bernardino County could meet state criteria as early as next week, which would allow reopening, county officials said on Tuesday, February 9.
The county has 33.2 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents, or an adjusted rate of 32.7 after counting the number of coronavirus tests in the county, according to state data.
That number has improved dramatically in recent weeks – the adjusted rate was 50.2 cases per 100,000 on Tuesday, February 2. The trend suggests that it may soon reach an adjusted rate of 25. Riverside County’s adjusted case rate is 44.9 cases per 100,000.
Once the fee is 25 or less for five consecutive days, school districts can begin the process of reopening from kindergarten to sixth grade classrooms for face-to-face teaching, said Corwin Porter, director of public health for County San Bernardino.
“If our numbers continue to drop, we could be very close by the end of this week,” Porter told San Bernardino County supervisors.
The projection assumes that rates do not increase because of Super Bowl meetings. The effects of the Super Bowl are expected to be seen next week, said Porter.
The decision to reopen if it meets state criteria rests with each school district, he said.
“We consulted them about this process, but ultimately it is the school district’s decision,” said Porter.
Earlier, the county had granted exemptions that would allow primary schools to reopen in parts of the county with lower case rates, but the state ended the exemption process on January 14.
The number of new positive cases has been falling rapidly since the winter peak, said Porter.
But the county encourages people to continue testing, which – together with people to prevent the disease from spreading – decreases the percentage of positive tests. And if the number of people tested drops too much, then the county’s case rate will be adjusted upwards – making it more difficult to reach the reopening benchmarks – instead of downwards, as it is now.
“The tests dropped as the number of cases decreased,” said Porter. “We are encouraging people to continue taking the test, even if they have been vaccinated, so that we can reduce the rate of positivity and continue towards the red (level).”
The county reaches the red level, allowing more companies to reopen if it has an adjusted case rate of 7.0 or less and positivity rates for the general county and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods below 8.0% for two consecutive weeks.
“We should have a more serious case in a few weeks about switching to red,” said Porter.
At the moment, the Unified School District of the City of San Bernardino has no plans to reopen elementary schools, even if it receives the green light to do so.
In November, the school council voted to continue distance learning until the end of the 2020-21 school year.
“It would be necessary to hold another meeting for the board to even reconsider” that plan, spokeswoman Maria Garcia said on Tuesday.
The California Department of Public Health is planning an interactive map on its website that will show each school district’s reopening status, security plans and COVID-19 cases, but as of February 9, the map was not yet available.
Team editor Beau Yarbrough contributed to this report.